Treacherous Trip Down the River
I’ve heard of The African Queen for years. It’s a legendary classic movie, after all. When I spotted it on Turner Classic Movies, I decided to watch it. While it definitely shows its age, I did enjoy it.
The movie is set in Africa in 1914. Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) and her brother, Sam (Robert Morley) are missionaries in a remote village until World War I finds them. Germans come in, kidnap the natives, and destroy the village. In the aftermath, Sam dies, so when Charlie Allnutt (Humphrey Bogart) returns with his boat, The African Queen, Rose is all too willing to leave with him.
Charlie is all for hiding out since the Germans would want to take his boat for the supplies he carries from location to location up and down the river. However, Rose has another idea. She wants them to take the boat up the river and use it to destroy a German ship patrolling a lake there. Will they make it?
This movie was made in 1951. You’ll want to keep that in mind as you watch. The storytelling and acting are definitely different than we get now. I got impatient as the movie took a while introducing the characters and setting up the story. But once the duo left on the boat, things picked up. It was fairly episodic as they faced one set back after another and had to figure out how to overcome it. But it does entertain as it does so.
The movie was filmed partially in Africa and partially on a soundstage. You can definitely tell when they are using a sound stage because the effects are obvious today. However, the fact that it was filmed on location, something that wasn’t done nearly as much back then, makes much of the movie look wonderful.
One last thing I found annoying; the characters called each other by name in most lines of dialogue. Please, just stop!
With Rose being a missionary, I was expecting a refined woman who shied away from adventure. Yes, she is refined, and she and Charlie do butt heads upon occasion (more so before they fall in love) because he isn’t nearly as refined as she is. However, she is much more adventurous than I, or Charlie, gave her credit for being. That leads to a couple of funny scenes. Yes, they both have moments of weakness. I liked that. It’s realistic that at some point you’ll want to give up. But I appreciated that the other person stepped up and handled the situation. That teamwork was fantastic.
While there are some other actors in the film, the majority of the time, it is just Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn on screen. They rise to the occasion perfectly. I buy their performances, even with the script gives them some sudden turns. Bogart won an Oscar for his performance here, and Katharine Hepburn was nominated for one. It’s easy to see why.
If you enjoy classic movies and have missed this one, it is worth going back and correcting that oversight. As long as you remember how old the movie is, you’ll appreciate The African Queen.
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